See Ginny tonight! Coming live to a computer screen near you! July 19, 2013

Today is the kickoff of the very first Freethought Blogs online conference! This online conference concept is a brilliant idea that I’m pretty sure will change the world forever… panels and presentations will be conducted through Google Hangout and viewable through hangouts and livestreams to anyone with internet access. I love so much about this. I love that new technology is leading to new and creative ways to form community. I love that this conference will be accessible to people who can’t afford travel and housing costs. I love that the low low price of hosting (pretty much free) and the relatively low time and planning investment (although I’m sure Miri and the other organizers will still be slightly out of their minds by the time the weekend’s over) mean that there’s an incredible diversity and flexibility around topics and presenters. Realize at the last minute that there should be a panel on skepticism and mental illness? Put out a call over social media and throw one together right-quick! I love that attending from home means I can tune in to the sessions I’m most interested in and do my homework the rest of the time. Or pull up the stream of a panel I’m maybe interested in but have the option of doing my homework if it turns out to be not that compelling. (This will almost certainly not happen.)

Oh yeah, I also love that I’ll be speaking at it. The Sex and Skepticism panel is the very first panel after Dave Silverman’s welcome, and it’s going live at 6pm CST, and I’m totally on it, along with Miri, Greta Christina, Franklin Veax, Sophie Hirschfeld, and Benny of Queereka. Since the panel was put together I’ve been debating with myself whether to openly squee about a couple of those names — writers I’ve followed and admired for years — or to play it totally cool, like yeah man, we’re all just sexuality professionals here. (Evidently I chose… neither?) Anyway, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be one of the awesomest panels ever, and you should totally tune in. (The FtBCon main site gives instructions for finding the stream. When it goes up I will try to remember to tweet a link from @polyskeptic.)

For those who have other plans tonight, the entire panel will be uploaded to youtube for your later watching convenience!